


Alternate Planning

by knitmeapony



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knitmeapony/pseuds/knitmeapony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team tries to pass some time while Nate plans a heist</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alternate Planning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hematite Badger (HematiteBadger)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HematiteBadger/gifts).



The tension was thick in the air.  Certain arguments were to be expected; most of the time they began and ended before anyone really realized they were going on.  But this, this was a most unusual squabble.

It wasn't odd for Parker to frustrate Eliot. A couple of hours earlier he'd been trying to show her just how blocking with an improvised shield would work best. She'd spent far too much time fixating on exactly what it was she was ever going to find to use as a shield, and how she was supposed to recognize it, and by the end of the session they both knew two things:

1) you could use anything as a shield as long as it was large and light enough, and  
2) even _Eliot_ no longer cared.

But of course the heist went on, and Nate had kicked them all out of his office so he could work on some of the details.  It'd been a while since they'd had to pull a no-holds-barred full frontal assault, and he was hanging by a thin thread as it was.

They'd poked around the living room for a good hour, slowly starting to drive one another crazy.  Sophie had tried very hard to pretend she wasn't bothered, perched in her favorite chair drinking wine, and reading the newspaper, but even that soured after she'd made it through the paper once.

Finally, Hardison had suggested they do a little... alternate planning.  Parker was all for it. She managed to wheedle Eliot despite his earlier irritations, but now they'd gotten into it again and not even Sophie had managed to restore peace.

It didn't help matters that they'd been in this stupid "alternate planning session" for hours now.  It was getting late, too, and despite Sophie's frequent checking in Nate seemed no closer to finishing with the _real_ planning.

Eliot had tried to break it up by throwing some kind of snacks-for-dinner together in the middle, but it hadn't helped.  He couldn't help but try to throw advice at Parker every time she talked about fighting; she stopped responding and just glared until he came back and sat down with them again.

Things had just started to smooth out when they realized they were going to have to break into the compound.

"So then we cross her..." he cut himself off as Parker made a warning sound.  "We cross in through this p..."  another sound, and he turned to look at her very, very slowly.  And very, very dangerously. 

"She's got a point, man."  Hardison held up his hands at the ugly look he got and leaned forward to trace a pencil eraser across the map.  "If you want to cross the field this way, you're going to have to look for...."  Parker made a little nuh-uh sound and now they were _both_ glaring at her.

"What?  It's  not my fault you guys are wrong."  Her eyebrows bunched sulkily as she looked between the two of them.

Hardison's irritation faded into faint bemusement.  "This isn't the problem?"  He tapped at the guard patrol path he'd sketched around the building.

"No, no, see, here?  Here."  She pointed at the paper and gestured dramatically.  "This is where you went wrong, trust me.  No thief would ever go in this way."  Eliot gave her an absolutely withering look and reached for his pencil. She put a hand over it with a very determined expression.  They glared at each other for a minute, and he finally blew out an irritated breath, giving in.

She stole the pencil and put it in her hair.  "Look, trust me."  She pushed one of the mini-quiches he made towards him.  "I trusted you on that whole don't-aim-for-the-face thing.  And that really _weird_ knitting thing.  What _was_ that, anyway?"

That was enough to stir him out of wordlessness.  "Look, it's a good hobby to have, okay?  It's a bag full of weaponry and focus training."  She gave him a flat, dubious look, and he threw up his hands.

"Fine.  Point made.  I get it.  Me knitter, you thief.  And this... whatever the hell this is."  He peered down at the papers in front of them, more irritated with them than he was with her.

"Let me help, okay? It's really easy.  Climbing down a wall is not the same thing as climbing up a wall.  And you definitely are going to want to check for security measures here and here."  She tapped the map. 

"Traps."  Hardison's impatient voice cut in.  "You mean he should..."

"Whatever."  She grumbled at him.  "This is all your fault anyway.  Who's the real thief in the room?  That would be me.  And I want this gold." 

Eliot flashed Hardison a what-can-you-do shrug and bent his head over the papers with Parker, letting her plan out an elaborate and careful assault on the compound.  Now that he was listening, she settled down and his eyes unfocused just a little, mentally elsewhere while he let her ramble on.

Hardison watched them with a tired expression.  "Look man, Eliot, just roll your dex plus stealth.  And do one traps check for every wall you're going to scale."  He pointed to the polyhedral dice on the table and rolled his eyes as Eliot made an impatient gesture and ignored him.

When Sophie set the orange soda in front of him, he could smell the alcohol she'd used to spike it and he gave her a terribly grateful look.

"And it was going so well," she said, watching Eliot and Parker squabble over the top of her wine glass.

"I guess you can't teach some people anything," he muttered, taking a long drink.  "You sure you don't want to play?  There's always room for one more."

Sophie got up abruptly.  "I'm sure Nate could use a hand planning the actual heist," she said, just a little hastily.  "Besides," she added, tone apologetic, "if I'm going to roll that many dice, there had better be a cash prize involved."  And with that, she fled the room, leaving them to their assault.

Nate didn't even glance up when she came in.  "They done?"

"No." She sighed.  "You really should join them, you know.  Hardison said something about needing a cleric.  I'm sure you could manage."

He snorted.  "Little bit busy."

"Oh, nonsense.  You've been done planning for hours."

He looked up from his game of solitaire.  "If you tell them that, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you have to play too."

They both turned their heads as voices in the next room started to get louder.  "Oh, fine, then maybe you'd like to do it with one of your stupid _socks_.  Big bag of weapons _my right foot_."

Hardison sighed and rested his forehead in his hands, waiting for Parker to get it out of her system. 

So much for his epic campaign.


End file.
